NYC to MONTREAL – bus? train? plane? car?

this morning i woke up early and still a little tired, i stayed in bed reading in my Lonely Planet USA, feeding my exitement over my 4-week-America-trip coming up in may. A little while back I told you I was going on a road trip, but what I did not tell you was that I will also be in New York before I launch on the road trip from Austin, Texas.

Something i hadn’t even thought about up to now, but that caught my attention, was the fact that there are pretty cheap busrides available to cities surrounding New York such as Philadelphia or Boston. After quickly inspecting a USA map I realised that Montreal wasn’t all that far away from New York. I’ve never been to Canada and have heard nothing but rave reviews about Montreal in particular, so clearly I got exited right away, checking information on how to get there, quick and cheaply.

The first indications I came across, after some searching online, were the bus (Greyhound does one route for $82) or the train (Amtrak, $62 one way) which is said to be a gorgeous and comfy ride. However, it also takes 3 hours longer than the bus version. As much as I would love to waste an entire day sitting on a train (not), I had already decided that I would probably go ahead booking a bus ticket when i read on the Lonely Planet forum that Craigslist held a lot of offers for rideshares to Montreal.

To have tried both, I will probably take the bus for my return to New York, but I sure am happy about this rideshare option (not only because it’s about half the price of a bus).

By the way, if you were wondering, flights to Montreal are not as cheap as domestic flights, due to pretty high international flight taxes. When I checked the prices for round-trips, flights were about $370.

Have any of you been to Montreal? I’d happily take on all the advice I can get.

Keep you posted,

Katja

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Katja

Katja Hentschel founded travelettes.net after successfully completing a year of backpacking the world in heels. Her favorite modes of transportation are helicopters and jetskis and she would always trade a 5-course meal at a fancy restaurant for a hot soup at a Thai roadside kitchen. Give her a camera and a high five and she will go out and find adventure. Get in touch with her at katja@travelettes.net

1 Comment

One thing I wanted to mention is that if you are a tourist who needs a visa to enter the US (or to Canada), and you enter Canada (or the other way around), it is possible that you visa is no longer valid for you to return to the US. It has happened before that tourists are stranded on the border and denied entry back to the US even after a day trip. Although it seems obvious, the US and Canada have immigration and transit laws that don't necessarily work together. A visa to one country doesn't give you the possibility to leave or visit the other without the risk of losing your original visa. Check with each country's embassy before leaving one country for the next.